In our linear culture, which has forgotten the eternal cycle of birth/life/death/rebirth, much of our Shadow involves our fear of loss. Many of us are strangers to death and dying. By facing our mortality, we can wake to being alive in this moment. We can remember that death is necessary for any renewal.

Sexuality too is devalued and distorted in our culture. Because we generally do not hold sexuality as sacred, many have been wounded in the name of love. We may harm ourselves and others by splitting off spirit from body.

The Shadow may hold our physical and emotional pain, which we may try to mask with medication or avoidance or denial. The conscious connected Breath lovingly reintegrates those sensations, which may or may not diminish in intensity. What does change is our ability to accept these sensations and enjoy the present moment as it is. We can fully inhabit the body and our whole Self, receiving the gifts it brings.

By making the body, sex, and death taboo, our culture has robbed us of a continuum of sacred human experiences. As an ancient, embodied approach to being with the Shadow, the Breath restores our experience of the entire cycle of life.